Louisville on Nov. 15 purchased the historic grain elevator building, captured here in a 1916 photograph, on County Road with plans to see it restored.
((Louisville Historical Museum, Courtesy photo))

Some of the biggest news in Louisville in 2012 came from the preservation of a historic structure, but significant plans were also approved for the redevelopment of other properties.

Those plans include the acquisition and proposed restoration for the Louisville grain elevator, a redevelopment plan to turn the former Safeway site into a mixed-use project, anchored by a natural grocer, and approval of a plan for the state's largest tennis center.

In Superior, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuits that blocked the controversial Jefferson Parkway land swap deal, which is critical in acquiring the necessary right-of-way to build a high-speed toll road through the area.

1. Louisville approves $1.5M to acquire, restore grain elevator

Louisville City Council in September approved $1.5 million to acquire and restore the Louisville grain elevator.

City Council voted 4-3 to approve an ordinance that authorizes a loan of up to $1.5 million from the general fund to the Louisville Historic Preservation Fund to finance the purchase, stabilization, rehabilitation and redevelopment of the historic grain elevator property.

The ordinance specifies that money from the Historic Preservation Fund and the general fund will be used to pay $950,000 to acquire the grain elevator property and also authorizes the $1.5 million loan. The Historic Preservation Fund's current balance is about $900,000 and staff estimates it will take in about $400,000 from tax receipts this year.

The city owns the $950,000 purchase contract for the property at 540 County Road which includes the 109-year-old structure and the former Napa Auto Parts building.

The grain elevator's original owners said they intended to demolish the building if the city could not figure out a way to purchase the property, referring to the structure as a liability.

The city initially agreed to partner with Boulder-based Amterre Property Group to buy and refurbish the building before Amterre officials backed away from the agreement.

Jessica Ridgeway
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Picasa
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The arrangement with Amterre required that the city put up $2.1 million and provide the developer with tax rebates to help with the purchase of the property and rehabilitation of the grain elevator. Amterre asked the city to take over the purchase contract after a referendum petition was submitted to the city by a Louisville citizens' group to repeal the ordinance that approved the funding.

Louisville is once again seeking a partner for the planned redevelopment of the historic grain elevator.

Louisville's elected leaders approved a plan in November to redevelop the former Safeway site that sat vacant for more than two years and it includes a 24,000-square-foot Alfalfa's.

The Louisville City Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution that allows Boulder developer Jim Loftus to move ahead with construction of a 111-unit luxury apartment complex with structured parking and 33,700 square feet of retail along South Boulder Road.

The bulk of that retail space would be dedicated to Alfalfa's -- including a 1,500-square-foot community room -- at the corner of South Boulder Road and Centennial Drive.

"What we have here is an opportunity to bring such vitality to an area that has been dying," Councilwoman Emily Jasiak said, referring to the struggling Village Square Shopping Center that was anchored by Safeway for 30 years before the grocer shut its doors in May 2010.

The effort to redevelop the 5-acre parcel began in June 2011 when Loftus hosted a community meeting inside the empty 54,000-square-foot Safeway and outlined his vision for the site.

His original plan -- a 195-unit apartment complex with 10,000 square feet of retail -- came up against stiff opposition from dozens of neighbors and residents, who deemed the four-story buildings he was pitching to be too dense and too tall for the neighborhood.

The Louisville Planning Commission rejected the proposal in March, and then the City Council did the same three months later.

This past summer, Loftus returned to the city with an even more scaled-back residential proposal and an Alfalfa's on the corner.

Alfalfa's president Mark Retzloff addresses a crowd of Louisville residents in September during a community meeting regarding the redevelopment of the former Safeway sight off South Boulder Road in Louisville. Louisville City Council approved the Alfalfa's-anchored project last month.
((Kimberli Turner/Colorado Hometown Weekly))

The new proposal met with significant public approval, largely because of the natural grocer's presence in the plan.

The city offered Alfalfa's one of the most generous business incentive packages it has ever extended -- highlighted by a three-year rebate of sales tax revenues and a 50 percent rebate of use taxes and building permit fees -- to woo the grocer to town.

The planning commission gave a green light to the project Oct. 25, but Alfalfa's must get separate approval from the city for its specific plans.

The city estimates that an Alfalfa's will generate $3 million in sales tax revenues for Louisville over a decade and employ 100 full-time and part-time employees. Traffic studies show that the development would generate 3,750 vehicle trips a day, far fewer than a fully functioning big-box grocer like Safeway would.

Superior was linked to the Jessica Ridgeway case -- the 10-year-old Westminster girl who went missing while walking to school Oct. 5 -- when her backpack was found in a Superior resident's yard days later.

Jessica Ridgeway's dismembered body was later found in a field in Arvada.

Westminster police arrested Austin Sigg Oct. 23, in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Jessica Ridgeway, after police received a tip that led them to a home near Ketner Lake Open Space.

He was charged with 17 counts total in connection with Jessica Ridgeway's kidnapping and murder and in an attack on a female jogger at Ketner Lake in May.

In the Jessica Ridgeway case, the 11 charges include first-degree murder after deliberation, three counts of felony murder, second-degree kidnapping, sex assault on a child and robbery. In the case of the jogger, the six counts include attempted first-degree murder, attempted kidnapping and attempted sexual assault.

Sigg's DNA matches material found on Jessica's backpack and prosecutors said their case is bolstered by that evidence and the teen's confession.

Sigg, who was 17 at the time of the murder, will be tried as an adult.

The Jefferson County judge in the case also ruled in late November that Sigg would be transferred from Mount View Youth Services Center, where he was being held in isolation, to a special housing unit in the county jail.

Superior's Community Park was illuminated Oct. 9, by the beams of hundreds of flashlights, as about 250 people showed support for the ongoing search for Jessica Ridgeway. The vigil was organized in part by Pastor Chris Cote of Louisville's Rock Creek Church and a corresponding event was held in Westminster.

Nonprofit Mental Health Partners, serving Boulder and Broomfield Counties, hosted a community outreach briefing about the Jessica Ridgeway case at Superior Town Hall, which was packed with Superior residents in mid October.

Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett and Boulder County Sheriff's Office officials addressed the crowd of residents who expressed their concern and fear about the case.

Emily Jasiak was appointed to the Louisville City Council in January after six council members deadlocked through 16 rounds of voting on selecting a seventh member at the end of 2011.

Jasiak was among 11 candidates who originally submitted their names in November for the seat that opened up when Bob Muckle won the race for mayor.

The city sent new questionnaires to the candidates to fill out over the holidays and four had dropped out by the January meeting.

Several long-time observers of city politics cited the quagmire over the seventh seat, as a sign that the City Council was divided along long-standing fault lines.

The City Council also deadlocked on appointing a council member as mayor pro tem.

Sheri Marsella's tenure as mayor pro tem ended on Nov. 15. When the board of six councilors attempted to appoint a mayor pro tem that night, they deadlocked between councilman Hank Dalton and councilwoman Frost Yarnell.

Dalton was elected mayor pro tem in February, three months after Louisville's municipal election.

He received the title as mayor pro tem in a 4-2 vote with support from Councilors Susan Loo, Jay Keany, Emily Jasiak and himself.

During that meeting, councilman Ron Sackett recused himself from taking part in electing a mayor pro tem.

Dalton disclosed he and Sackett had engaged in a discussion relative to the selection of the Ward 1 Council member and the nomination of mayor pro tem. According to the minutes from the Feb. 7 meeting, there were phone conversations, emails and a memo from the City Attorney regarding whether or not the City's Ethics Code had been violated, following Jasiak's selection as a Ward 1 Council member.

A federal judge last week dismissed the lawsuits that blocked the Jefferson Parkway land swap deal.

It appears the development of the controversial Jefferson Parkway is set to move forward after a federal district court judge dismissed a consolidated lawsuit seeking to block a land swap intended to provide the last piece of needed right-of-way for the project.

The land deal involves the trading of a 617-acre parcel near the southwestern corner of Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, known as Section 16, for a 300-foot-wide transportation right of way on the eastern edge of the refuge that runs parallel to Indiana Avenue in the area.

Completion of the deal is critical to acquiring the necessary right-of-way to build a high-speed toll road through the area, a road the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority--an entity representing Broomfield, Arvada and Jefferson County--says will nearly complete a regional beltway around metro Denver.

The deal first landed in federal court late last year when the town of Superior sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is in charge of the wildlife refuge and is seeking to add Section 16 to its acreage. Superior is claiming an insufficient environmental review had been performed.

The refuge was formerly part of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility and Superior has disputed the service's findings that the land swap would have "no significant impact" on the natural or human environment. Town officials have expressed concern that any construction in the area could disturb plutonium that accumulated in the soil on the site during the decades it was an active nuclear weapons plant.

That suit was later consolidated with similar suits filed by the City of Golden and by environmental groups WildEarth Guardians and Rocky Mountain Wild.

U.S. District Judge Philip A. Brimmer addressed the plaintiffs' combined concerns in a 96-page opinion and ultimately ruled that the land swap deal meets the legal standards needed to proceed.

WildEarth Guardians and the Rocky Mountain Wild intend to appeal the judge's decision and seek an emergency injunction from a federal appeals court.

6. Monarch first to pilot laptop program in BVSD

The Monarch High School freshman class piloted the One to One computing program, launched Jan. 17, and was the first public high school in Boulder County to incorporate laptops into students' learning in the classroom.

While many students already have a laptop at home, students who are a part of the free and reduced lunch program, or who have circumstances in which they cannot afford a laptop, borrowed a laptop.

MHS Principal Jerry Anderson said it's important all students have access to the technology and the program will help bridge the gap between students who have computers at home and those who don't.

"Even though we're the guinea pigs, it will be cool to say we're the first kids in Boulder Valley School District to do this," said MHS freshmen Karina Mann.

Monarch not only acted as a pioneer with the One to One program but is also the first school in the Boulder Valley School District to pilot Google applications -- all MHS students have a Gmail account and can access the browser's other features. The school uses cloud technology and other software applications. Thanks to California-based wireless provider Extreme Networks, students will be able to access the Internet all over Monarch's campus.

The program is funded through one-time 3A restoration funds from 2010-2011 budget cuts with $87,000 going toward rebuilding the school's wireless infrastructure in order to handle the school's online capacity. The remaining $176,000 in funds will go toward funding a math tutor, a part-time counseling assistant, support for Monarch's Freshman Seminar and technology support.

Incoming freshman parents were surveyed in the spring of 2011 and, of the156 parents who responded to the survey, more than 40 percent supported the pilot program. 66 percent of parents who responded said their student would use a laptop they already have at home and 34 percent said they would lease their child a laptop so they could participate in the program.

7. Colorado's largest tennis facility gets go-ahead in Louisville

The Louisville City Council, during its Dec. 4 meeting, voted unanimously to approve a final planned unit development for the Rocky Mountain Tennis Center. The private tennis club could break ground in the spring and be open for business by the fall of 2013.

The tennis center would be built on 13.4 acres at the northeast corner of 96th Street and Dillon Road, and would be the state's largest tennis complex -- complete with 25 regulation courts and eight kids' courts.

Bill Boothby, business director for the $12 million facility, said he expects the center to not just draw players from Boulder County but from the region as a whole. Already, the center has gotten membership commitments from enthusiasts in Golden, Thornton and Arvada, Boothby said.

He said 100 people have put down deposits on a membership at the club, which will cost $165 a month for an individual and $285 a month for a family. Boothby said he expects 200 memberships to be in place by late next year.

Duke Paluch, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Tennis Center, said one of the signature features of the complex will be its eight clay courts. Four will be under a seasonal bubble for use during cold weather.

The addition of eight "quick start" 10-and-under courts, measuring either 60 feet or 36 feet from baseline to baseline, will help the center start producing "world-class players" at a young age in a sport where American stars have been eclipsed by players from Europe.

The project has run into delays over the last few months, setting back the construction start date by nearly a year.

Boothby is still trying to nail down long-term financing and equity participation for the center, which will feature a tennis academy and host tournaments and special events. But he expects to get his building permits in the next few months and bring in the earth movers by spring.

The complex will be built in two phases, with 17 courts going in first and then the additional courts being built over the next three to four years. In total, 14 of the courts at the Rocky Mountain Tennis Center will be indoors, at least during the winter.

In the second phase, an Olympic-size pool and a 7,500-square-foot clubhouse are envisioned for the center.

The City of Louisville, in July, was included on Family Circle magazine's sixth annual "10 Best Towns for Families in the U.S."

The East Boulder County community was the only Colorado municipality on the list.

Family Circle magazine officials enlisted assistance from Onboard Informatics, a New York City research firm that provides real estate and demographic data, to gather information about cities and towns "that provide affordable housing, good neighbors, green spaces, strong public school systems and giving spirits. "From a list of 3,335 municipalities with populations ranging from 11,000 to 150,000, Family Circle selected 1,300 contending cities with median household incomes between $55,000 and $96,000.

The magazine "then assessed which places best met our family-friendly criteria--including affordable homes, quality schools, access to health care, green space, low crime rate and financial stability -- and ranked them from top to bottom," according to the release.

The magazine's top 10 cities didn't receive numbered rankings.

"When we get these awards from national magazines, it tells us what we already know -- it's a really great place to live and raise a family," said Louisville Mayor Bob Muckle.

The magazine gave Louisville a nine out of 10 for its "great schools" rating; each town's schools rating was based on students' performance on standardized tests from elementary through high school, relative to students at other schools around the state, provided by nonprofit greatSchools.org.

According to Family Circle, a rating of 10 means overall test scores are as good as or better than 90 percent of scores elsewhere.

Family Circle also highlighted Louisville Middle School's annual WinterSlam basketball game where eighth-graders play ball against teachers, policemen and firefighters and ask those attending the game to donate a toy for underprivileged kids.

9. Rochester found not guilty by reason of insanity in son's death

In early January, Stephanie Rochester was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2010 death of her 6-month-old son, Rylan.

A Boulder County district judge listened to more than an hour of testimony from a psychiatrist who said the Superior woman suffered from major depression with psychotic symptoms and saw her son as an "alien, toxic, contaminated being."

Lloyd Rochester testified at the January 11 bench trial that Stephanie was increasingly obsessed with signs their son was not developing normally.

During the initial investigation, Rochester told detectives that she believed Rylan was autistic, and that having an autistic child would emotionally and financially "ruin" her life.

She also told detectives that she placed a plastic bag over Rylan's head and later placed blankets over his face, suffocating him. When Rylan was unresponsive in the morning, his parents Stephanie and Lloyd Rochester, now Stephanie's ex-husband, rushed him to Avista Hospital in Louisville, where he was declared dead June 1, 2010.

After the court denied repeated requests to allow a prosecution psychiatrist to do his own examination of Stephanie Rochester, the Boulder County District Attorney's Office decided not to formally contest the insanity plea at a jury trial.

Rochester was ordered to be committed to the state mental health hospital until she is determined not to be a danger to herself or others.

10.Community Food Share closes on new, larger building in Louisville

Community Food Share, based in Niwot, has plans to move to Louisville, after it closed on its purchase of a building in Louisville in August.

The nonprofit food bank, which serves Boulder and Broomfield counties, is more than three times as large as its current headquarters in Niwot. The Louisville facility, at 650 Taylor Ave., in the Colorado Tech Center, is 68,480-square-feet.

CFS distributes food both directly and through a network of nearly 60 agencies in Boulder and Broomfield counties.

Distribution this year was projected to exceed 7.65 million meals, which would serve more than 35,000 people in the two counties.